Projects, Criticism, Musings

All the Wraths of MtG

Something for the Commander/EDH players: a comprehensive list of all “Wrath” effects in Magic: the Gathering. This is more useful than it sounds: a lot of wraths, some of them very good, won’t show up in the obvious Gatherer searches.

Here are some details about the list that you can freely skip:

What exactly counts as a wrath? I had to draw the line somewhere. I ended up with a bunch of rules, which were chosen with Commander in mind. A “wrath” must match all of them. An “honourable mention” is allowed a bit more leeway in one of them. I’ve been generous with the corner cases.

It must affect “most” creatures; or at least 6 creatures; or at least 4 creatures per opponent; or all but one creature per opponent. (Honourable mention: about half the creatures; or at least 4 creatures; or at least 2 creatures per opponent.)

It must affect at least 2 opponents. (HM: not necessary.)

It must “neutralize” the creatures “permanently”. (HM: for one whole turn, or until undone by e.g. killing a certain permanent.)

If it kills creatures through damage or -X/-X, X should be at least 5. (HM: 4.)

It cannot cost more than 12 mana in a single turn. (Also true for an honourable mention.)

All the destruction must happen in a single turn. (Also true for an honourable mention.)

Although they technically have the same outcome, I’ve chosen to exclude tutor effects and cards that straight-up kill someone or win the game. (For honourable mentions, however, I’ve chosen to include tutors from other players’ libraries or graveyards, because I want this list to be useful to Commander players and they often forget this option when hunting for wrath effects.)

As lines in the sand go, that’s pretty close to the sea, so there are a few very very bad wraths that still made the list. Luckily, I’ve also given each card a star rating (based on how good they are at being wraths in Commander). The more situational cards are assumed to be in an appropriate deck; don’t run Warp World if you won’t have a lot of permanents on the board. One could quibble about some of my choices, but as long as you stick to the 3+ stars you’ll do fine.

: one of the best cards in Commander, period.: excellent value for the mana. Will bring a smile to your face when you draw it.: good value for the mana. The Wrath of God standard.: does the job, but not very well.: pretty much unplayable as a wrath.

The list is meant to be comprehensive, so please do tell me about any card I’ve missed.

You seriously need to re-rank this – the perfect example of why is Toxic Deluge. It is a $10 card for a reason, it is in NO way such a poor card for commander as you make it out to be – it was built for the format. Having 40 life mitigates the life cost and it is the one of, if not, the cheapest boardwipes in the game at 3 CMC with only one coloured mana shows me your rating system is absolutely horrid.